Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Voluntary Society

So, at long last the bitter election for President of the United Sates is over. Around this part of the empire the vast majority of people are sorely disappointed by the results, to the point of anger or depression. I try and let them know that the POTUS doesn't have all that much influence over the things they are upset over, domestic policy is not really that easy for a POTUS to change. It's only in foreign policy that he can directly impact things in any way, he is the Commander in Chief after all and can rather quickly pull troops out of our wars if he so chooses. Of course I'm under no illusion that he will do this any more than the last man who occupied that office and promised to get us out of all of our wars of conquest around the world, and he even got the PEACE prize just for saying he'd do it, and yet we are still in every spot we were in then and then some.

Peace does not come from governments. Governments are nothing but violence, it is the only tool they have to use. If they are not using or threatening violence then they are not being a government, instead they have become a Voluntary Society. :-) It's really pretty simple when you think about it.

Peace comes from peaceful people interacting with other peaceful people each and every day. Already the vast majority of all of your interactions are voluntary and peaceful. Only your interactions with criminals or the government involve violence... and those two are really the same thing.

The world will be much better off when most people realize that violence is never the answer. Even when opposing violent and evil people, meaning governments, nonviolence is the more effective tactic. This has been proven over and over, yet because violence is so ingrained into our minds as the solution to every problem it takes a major effort to see it.